With the influx of recent donating admins, and the various issues that have arisen, I felt an article would help ease things right along into our brand new Mentor Program. The proverbial "Cement to the bricks". I realize this general idea has been covered by c00ter, however, this Article deals more with the technical aspects of being an admin such as...

When/how to hand down judgement.

How to avoid admin abuse repercussions.

General advice with admin-to-admin conflict.

Let's start off with some frequently-asked questions, and their answers!

A Q&A With a Veteran SA

As a new admin, you may have some questions on when it's okay or advised to use your admin powers. In this section, I'll go over a few of the questions I'm commonly asked by our newer donating admins.

Q: This user is so annoying! Can I just Perma-gag him and be done with it?A: Under the MOTD, you are allowed to gag players that disrespect you, or disrupt roleplay. However, it is highly recommended that you find an alternate solution, such as an rp_gag, or simply trying to talk it out with the user in the admin room, or via PMs.

Q: I just kicked a user for "Learn the rules, minge." Was this okay?A: No. This is not only rude, it is unspecific. The user has a chance of being uncertain what they were kicked for, and any admins investigating will struggle to determine the actual rule broken by the user. This goes for similar commands such as sm_pgag, as well.

Q: I'm getting angry at this user who's breaking the rules. What should I do?A: Restrain the user, take a moment, and cool off. Acting out of vengeance/anger/frustration will more often result in action being taken against you as well, if not solely. Remember: An irate admin is as dangerous to himself as he/she is to an opposing party.

Q: I have an issue with another admin. How should I deal with this?A: A good question. Admins of equal rank (Or those of a higher rank) should refrain from exercising their commands on one another until ALL OTHER possibilities have been exhausted, including third-party arbitration from a peer, or higher-ranked admin. Possibly the only exception to this rule is if the admin in question's behavior must be immediately halted for the greater good of the server such as when the offending admin is disrupting a large portion of the server's RP without reason.

Any members with further questions to add to the Q&A section are more than welcome to PM me directly, and if I feel the question would help our admins do their job better, I will add it to the section. For now, let's continue.

When And How to Hand Down Judgement

This section will give information on the basics of how to go about giving punishments to users who break the rules. These techniques will vary case-to-case, and you will develop a sense on how to go about specific scenarios as you gain experience throughout your admin career.

As a general rule-of-thumb, discussions with rule-breakers and the punishment of said users should take place in a private place, such as the admin room. If you don't feel you need to take the incident to the admin room, simply speak with them via /PM. In the event they insist on making the argument public, making use of the rp_gag command will prevent them from using any public chat channels, like /OOC or /Advert; this will force them to speak in vicinity chat, keeping the incident isolated, and removing the possibility of RP being disrupted. When dealing with a rule-breaker that could result in punishment for you or them, ALWAYS HAVE ALL INVOLVED PARTIES USE TEXT. Proving you're right later on, if the need arises, will be much harder without log proof.

As an admin, you have a large number of commands at your disposal to deal with users who violate our MOTD. It's your responsibility to uphold our server rules using these commands, but keep in mind that enough is enough when dealing with rule-breakers. Never dish out punishment for vengeance. As stated in the above section, your admin commands should almost never be used on your peers.

Interfacing With Your Colleagues

It can be tough at times to agree with (Or even tolerate) the other admins of our community, but we're all a team here. Just like in any team, there will be disagreements; it's only natural. Just make sure not to let these petty squabbles turn into self-destructive personal arguments.

People get angry, there's no way around that fact, but how you vent your anger can make or break your reputation and your credibility. No one likes being yelled at, as such, you lose much of your credibility with others when you speak in an angry or offensive way. A well thought-out sentence will gain more support from those around you (And sometimes from your adversary) than will a sentence strewn with curse words and personal attacks. Let's have an example:

A fellow admin has just kicked one of your friends for a reason you feel is inadequate, or incorrect. He is adamant in his decision to kick him, and you get angry. Which of these sentences is he more likely to listen to?

A) "Why did you do that, asshat? He didn't do anything, but you just had to get butthurt and fucking kick him."B) "Can you please explain why you kicked him? I didn't witness him break any rules."Obviously, sentence B will get your point across much better than pointlessly yelling at him will. Not only that fact, but other admins that hear you attack him might get up-in-arms for his cause rather than helping your friend. The golden rule we've learned since our youth is possibly the best advice for getting along with your fellow admins, and other users in general. "Treat others the way you would like to be treated."

While we're on this subject, Let's talk about speaking to a more experienced admin. Too often I see the newer admins of this community slighting the advice, or warnings given to them by veterans. Yes, you are the same rank, but let's face facts - some people have been here longer than you, and they have helpful advice that you can use to do your job better!

Closing Comments

Admin abuse reports will happen, there's no denying it. However, that doesn't mean they have to be the end of you. The simplest way to avoid job-threatening abuse reports is to not abuse in the first place. This can be difficult at times, but hopefully this guide will do a bit to keep you on-track in your upcoming career as an admin here on SammyServers!

Last edited by Frost on Wed Sep 21, 2011 1:05 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Very well written article Wooden, ya hit the nail on the head here. Also, may I suggest you add a section about newer admins dealing with more experienced admins? Something along the lines of letting newer admins know that at times they will be told to do/ not to do things by more seasoned admins, and to respect that fact, and not to blow up and cause a whole boatload of unneeded drama. I see this happen far too often on the servers.

________________ლ(ಠ益ಠ)ლZaros was killed by spawned_money(OOC) Zaros: DEATH BY MONIEZCLEMENTINE PADDLEFORD killed Cherry using weapon_real_cs_knife <----- OMGOMGOMG

Very well written article, if you could somehow make it so all new admins must read over this, it would be awesome. The last time i was on darkrp i saw quite a bit of admin aboose, but then again, it was a while ago.

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 0 guests

You cannot post new topics in this forumYou cannot reply to topics in this forumYou cannot edit your posts in this forumYou cannot delete your posts in this forumYou cannot post attachments in this forum